nd that they had met. But it was not till it had
gone on about a week, with the strangest results on Kitty's spirits
and nerves, that she felt she must interfere. She not only spoke to
Kitty, but she spoke and wrote to him in a very firm, dignified
way. Kitty took no notice--only became very silent and secretive.
And he treated poor Margaret with a kind of courteous irony which
made her blood boil, and against which she could do nothing. She
says that Kitty seems to her sometimes like a person moving in
sleep--only half conscious of what she is doing; and at others she
is wildly excitable, irritable with everybody, and only calming
down and becoming reasonable when this man appears.

"There is much talk in Venice. They seem to have been seen together
by various London friends who knew--about the difficulties last
year. And then, of course, everybody is aware that you are not
here--and the whole story of the book goes from mouth to mouth--and
people say that a separation has been arranged--and so on. These
are the kind of rumors that Margaret hears, especially from Mary
Lyster, who is staying in this hotel with her father, and seems to
have a good many friends here.

"Dearest William--I have been lingering on these things because it
is so hard to have to tell you what passed between me and Kitty.
Oh! my dear, dear son, take courage. Even now everything is not
lost. Her conscience may awaken at the last moment; this bad man
may abandon his pursuit of her; I may still succeed in bringing her
back to you. But I am in terrible fear--and I must tell you the
whole truth.

"Kitty received me alone. The room was very dark--only one lamp
that gave a bad light--so that I saw her very indistinctly. She was
in black, and, as far as I could see, extremely pale and weary. And
what struck me painfully was her haggard, careless look. All the
little details of her dress and hair seemed so neglected. Blanche
says she is far too irritable and impatient in the mornings to let
her hair be done as usual. She just rolls it into one big knot
herself and puts a comb in it. She wears the simplest clothes, and
changes as little as possible. She says she is soon going to have
done with all that kind of thing, and she must get used to it. My
own impression is that she is